Hadassah Medical Center (Hebrew: הָמֶרְכָּז הָרְפוּאִי הֲדַסָּה) is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its mission is to extend a "hand to all, without regard for race, religion or ethnic origin."
The hospital was founded by the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America, which continues to underwrite a large part of its budget today. The Medical Center ranks as the sixth-largest hospital complex in Israel. Across its two campuses, Hadassah Medical Center has over 1,300 beds, 31 operating theaters and nine special intensive care units, and runs five schools of medical professions.
In 2025, Newsweek ranked the Ein Karem hospital as the 4th best hospital in Israel and the 242nd best in the world.
Late Ottoman period (1912–1915)
The Hadassah organization was established in 1912 in New York City to provide health care in Ottoman-ruled Jerusalem. In 1913, Hadassah sent two nurses to the Ottoman South Syrian Eyalet. They set up a small public health station in Jerusalem to provide maternity care and treat trachoma, a dreaded eye disease rampant in the Middle East. During the First World War the Ottoman authorities suspected Jews had sympathies with the enemy and in 1915 the Hadassah Nurses station had to close down due to Ottoman pressure.
Activities throughout Mandate Palestine (1918–1948)
In 1918, Hadassah established the American Zionist Medical Unit (AZMU), staffed by 45 medical health professionals. The AZMU helped to establish six hospitals in British Mandatory Palestine which were then turned over to municipal authorities. The Meir Rothschild Hospital opened in Jerusalem in 1918. That year, Hadassah also founded a nursing school to train local personnel and create a cadre of nurses.
In 1919, Hadassah organized the first School Hygiene Department in British Mandatory Palestine to give routine health examinations to Jerusalem school children. During the Arab riots of 1920, Hadassah nurses cared for the wounded on both sides. Henrietta Szold moved to Jerusalem that year to develop community health and preventive care programs.
In 1921, a Hadassah nurse, Bertha Landsman, set up the first Tipat Halav perinatal care center in Jerusalem, providing care for babies and their mothers and providing pasteurized milk for those who needed. That same year, Hadassah opened a hospital in Tel Aviv. The following year, it established a hospital in Haifa. In 1926, Hadassah established the first tuberculosis treatment center in Safed. In 1929, Hadassah opened the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center in Jerusalem. In the 1930s, planning began for a new hospital to replace the Rothschild hospital founded in 1888 on Street of the Prophets, Jerusalem. Rose Halprin, Hadassah's sixth national president, moved to Jerusalem to serve as liaison between the American office and Hadassah in British Mandatory Palestine. The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital, the first teaching hospital and medical center in British Mandatory Palestine, opened on May 9, 1939.
The Hadassah Medical Organization operated an infirmary in Hebron. The Beit Hadassah clinic had three floors with the infirmary, the pharmacy and the synagogue on the top floor. Free care was provided to Jews and Arabs. The building dates back to 1893 and was originally called the Chesed L'Avraham clinic. In 1929 it was the site of some of the worst of the Hebron massacre.
The British Royal Commission, known as the Peel Commission, praised the work of Hadassah in its 1937 report:
The Hadassah Medical Organization has developed a widespread system of clinics in Jewish centres and hospitals in the principal towns...Though naturally the Jewish population benefited most, the Hadassah medical services were available to all the communities in Palestine and many of the poorer classes amongst the Arabs received much assistance from the work of the organization. This disinterested philanthropy of Hadassah deserves recognition: it was a real step towards the promotion of good feeling between the two races; but unhappily the effect of its work was impaired by other influences.
The Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus opened in 1939 and had to be closed down in 1948.
As a result of the 1948 war, Mount Scopus with the Hadassah Hospital were left as an Israeli exclave, guarded by a small number of Israeli armed personnel, and all the activities at the medical campus had to be abandoned. An alternative set of locations in West Jerusalem were adopted by the evacuated medical staff for continuing their activity. In 1961 a new medical complex was built in Ein Karem on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
During the Six-Day War, Israel conquered the entire area around Mount Scopus and the old medical campus was eventually reactivated. Both campuses are currently active, with the Ein Karem facilities being by far the larger and more important of the two.
In 2005, Hadassah was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in acknowledgment of its equal treatment of all patients, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, and efforts to build bridges to peace.
French baritone David Serero has performed several concerts at the hospital in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for Israeli and Palestinian children. He is the young president of the organization in France.
Due to an accumulated deficit of over 1 billion NIS, at the request of the medical center's management, the Israeli courts declared 3 months of suspension of proceedings of insolvency, with a hold on action by creditors starting February 2014.